Plan and prioritise · Add-on

Write things down so new joiners can follow: decisions, product docs and a glossary

When a company grows fast, knowledge lives in a few heads. Write down decisions and how the product works so new people can get up to speed without asking.

About 2-4 daysEvergreenLast reviewed 5 November 2026

Who this applies to

Skills it builds: Communication and influence
PM types: All
Product types: All
Starting points: All
Ways of working: All
Experience: All
Size of organisation: Scaling

Steps, by experience

Beginner (under 1 year)

Start a decision log: date, decision, why and who decided.
Write a short page on what the product does and for whom.
Start a glossary of the terms your team uses.
Link everything from one starting page.
Ask the next new joiner what was missing, and add it.

Intermediate (1 to 4 years)

Write the decision down first, then announce it with a link.
Agree where each kind of document lives.
Review and prune documents every quarter.

Experienced (5+ years)

Make written decisions a norm across product and engineering.
Use short decision records for important technical and product choices.
Measure how long new joiners take to get up to speed.

Who can do this

Owner: Product manager

Can be delegated to

Content Designer: Edit pages so they are clear
Tech Lead or Architect: Write technical decision records

Tool examples

Confluence: Keep the decision log and glossary in one space.
Notion: Link all key pages from one team home page.
GitHub: Store decision records next to the code.

Definition of done

Decision log started
Product overview page written
Glossary started
One starting page links them all

Common pitfalls

Writing long documents nobody reads
Documents in many places
Decisions announced but never written down

If you lead the team

What good looks like: Decisions and product knowledge are written down, so new joiners can follow without asking.